Shadow Flames
by Asilanna Dark-witch
Summary: After spending 7 years in Zuko's world, both Wanda and Zuko get summoned back into the world of mutants. The world that Wanda left behind is now in shambles, with Magneto leading a war that will change that face of humanity. Now she must choose to fight for her world and her people or return to the quiet life of happiness Zuko has shown her.
1. Chapter 1

Wanda felt the tugging sensation in her navel as she was ripped from her bed in the Fire Nation Palace. Even more panic spread through her when she found she couldn't fight it, and within seconds was pulled away from the place she had called home for the past seven years. Before she even had a chance to process what was going on, she felt herself come into contact with solid ground as she was dumped onto a wooden floor. To her relief she saw that Zuko tumbled out behind her, sprawling across the floor next to her.

"Uh-oh," she heard from behind her. "I think we did somethin' wrong." That voice sounded somewhat familiar, but she couldn't place it… it was as if from a dream. After her head stopped spinning she opened her eyes and took in her surroundings. As soon as she did, familiar anger blazed through her, something she hadn't needed to tap into for several years.

"Toad?!" she asked in horror and wrath.

"Wanda?" he asked incredulously. She looked so different to him. Her hair was long, flowing waves of auburn, much different than the cropped black and red he had known from before. Her clothes were different as well. The tight leather had been replaces with a long, silk red dress that slid off of her shoulders. She didn't even look like the same person. And who was the guy that was lying on the ground next to her?

Even though Toad looked different to her, taller and with short-cropped hair, she would know that voice and those eyes anywhere.

"What did you _do_?!" she demanded, bringing a scarlet glow to her hands.

"Wanda, calm down." She hadn't been able to focus on anything else, but now Wanda realized there were even more people in the room. A shapely red head sat directly to her right, delicate features currently furrowed in confusion. It took Wanda a moment to recognize this person, but when she did and instant sphere of red circled her and Zuko protectively against Jean Grey.

"_JEAN?!" _What the fuck was going on? Brotherhood did not mix with X-Men, ever for any reason. Why was Jean here with Toad? Why was she herself even here with these two mutants? She had left that world behind with no way back just three years shy of a decade ago.

"Wanda, you must find a center of focus for your mind," chimed in another, much elderly voice. Directly across from Jean sat her previous mentor and teacher of witchcraft, Agatha. Wanda was more surprised that the old woman was still alive than anything, though it looked as if the elderly witch hadn't aged a day since Wanda was last taught by her.

"What the hell is going on?" asked Zuko as he stood up beside her, careful not to touch the red hex magic that circled him.

"It seems things were a bit different than we realized," observed Jean.

"No fuck," remarked an angry Wanda.

"Child, center yourself. Allow us to explain." Even after so long apart from Agatha, Wanda still felt immediately attuned to the woman's commands. Without even thinking about it, she inhaled to the count of seven, held it, then released it. She fixed her eyes on the elder woman though kept her protective sphere in tact.

"Fine. Care to tell me what you've done and for the love of God, _why_?" Agatha nodded at Jean, whom Wanda directed her attention to.

"Wanda, you can lower your shields, we're not here to hurt you. Actually, we brought you back to ask for your help."

"Well you can forget that. What makes you think that I would do anything to help you? I left for a reason! To get AWAY from all of this, all of you! I finally found a place where I belong, where I fit, where I'm _happy_. And you expect me to leave that because you need my help? Fuck off." She noticed Toad looked more than a little wounded at her words, but pushed that from her mind. Jean sighed.

"Ok, let's start at the beginning then: First, we didn't realize that you had…well, gone somewhere else." Wanda scowled.

"Where did you think I went then?" Silence met her words. Finally she fixed her glare on Toad. "Well?"

"We thought…Wanda, we thought you were dead."

"Dead?" Wanda echoed in disbelief. "You…you just tried to bring me back from the dead?! Why?"

"That's what I'm trying to explain," Jean told her. "We're desperate, Wanda. We need you." Wanda scoffed.

"For what?"

"A lot has changed since you…left." Jean flicked her eyes up and down Zuko, who crossed his arms over his bare chest and stared down at her. She blushed, but continued. "We stood a fighting chance for a while but then… Mystique murdered the professor." Wanda could tell that this was recently, because Jean's eyes still watered and she had to look away. Toad picked up where she left off.

"Even though Mystique did it for him, Magneto still killed her for retribution. I guess he 'n the prof' were still close, despite the war." At the sound of her father's name Wanda's blood boiled. Zuko slipped a hand into hers, and she looked up at him. He stared into her eyes, letting her know that he was there and that it would be ok, Magneto or not. Wanda growled and let the anger fade for the moment in order to focus on the other part of that statement.

"War? What war?"

"Magneto has been raging an all-out war on normal, non-mutant humans and all mutants who would fight on their side." Jean had regained composure and had continued speaking. "What you knew before, the Morlocks, the Brotherhood, the X-men, the Acolytes, all of it; it doesn't exist anymore. There are no more branches, just a line down the middle. Those who fight with Magneto and his ideals to have the world taken over by mutants and slaughter every human in his way, and those who oppose him." Wanda's eyes flashed dangerously.

"And what does all of this have to do with me?" she demanded coldly.

"With both Mystique and the professor gone…there's no one to oppose him. There are people, but they have no hope, nothing to rally behind. The professor was the last man to stand between Magneto and his twisted idea of a utopia. No there's no one that can take him on with a fighting chance of winning…except you. You were the only one to have ever bested him. We need you Wanda, not just us, but everyone."

"If you were trying to bring me back from the dead, why didn't you try the professor first?" Wanda spat, trying to ignore the previous comment.

"It was Toad's idea…" Jean said. Wanda looked at Toad, who shrugged.

"I figured, if you went out with magic, maybe enough magic could bring you back. So I went to Agatha. She said she needed a psychic boost to find your plane of existence, so we got Jean. And me…well they used me to call you." Toad shrugged and looked away. Wanda was about to ask that the hell he meant by that, but Zuko interrupted.

"So if Wanda helps you, you'll send her, us, back?" he asked. Silence.

"You weren't going to send me back?!" Wanda hissed.

"Wanda…we thought that you were dead," Jean said slowly. "The magic we used… we weren't planning of killing you when, if, you helped us. We didn't know that you had gone somewhere else. What we did… It was a one-way doorway."

"You mean you _can't_!" Red flashes of lightning lit up the room as Wanda's panic fused with her anger. "How _dare _you, how dare any of you…." She ran out of words to use to express her emotions at that point. Zuko could tell that she was slipping from him. If he didn't act now, she would do something that he wouldn't be able to stop. He put one of his hands on her shoulder and turned her to face him.

"Wanda," he said gently as he stared her down. Her fists were clenched and there was murder in her eyes, but she still held back to listen to him. "It's going to be ok. You got to my world once before, didn't you? That was a long time ago, when you hadn't grown or learned as much control over your power. If it happened on accident, we can do it again. It will just take time to figure out how, but we'll figure it out. I promise." Wanda still felt a violent rage ripping through her at the situation she had been thrown into, but allowed some of it to ebb away at his words.

"How can you be so calm? It's your world too. What will they do, without a Fire Lord? What if they need you? You can't just disappear on your people like this." Zuko nodded, but then put his remaining hand on her other shoulder, holding her directly in front of him so as to block everyone else out while he talked her down.

"Yes, that's true but they will have Uncle, and my mother, as well as Aang and everyone else to help out while I'm gone." He moved one of his hands up to cup her face. "I'm here with you, Wanda. We'll figure this out, together." She closed her eyes and pushed her face into his palm, holding there for a moment or two before releasing a breath and with it her hex sphere. As she turned around she tried to ignore the hurt in Toad's eyes.

"Fine. But I'm not promising anything; my number one priority is to get back home where I belong."


	2. Chapter 2

That first day reminded her a lot of her first day in Zuko's world; there was a lot of questions from both sides about the difference in the worlds. For every question she asked about the current situation, she seemed to answer three more about the world she now called home. Eventually she was able to get a picture of what she was facing, and it wasn't pretty.

Hardly anyone was left to fight Magneto, save for the humans and a handful of mutants. All of the Morlocks had joined him without hesitation; all of the Brotherhood save for Toad and Lance, and all of the Acolytes with the exception of Gambit. Those three defected to join in with most of the X-Men and a few random mutants who hadn't been in an allegiance before the war that was now being dubbed World War X. Casualties listed the Beast, Wolverine, Sabertooth, Professor X, Mystique, Cyclops, Jubilee, Mesmero, Psylocke and even more that she didn't know. A part of her felt bad for not knowing the rest of the names listed, but while she had been in this plane she had been morbidly obsessed with getting her hands on Magneto and hadn't seen much else of the world around her.

The more she learned, the more her hatred grew. So many had died, and for what? A 'perfect' world? She was sick of what her father was doing. She had seen that people with abilities and people without them could coexist in Zuko's world with benders and non-benders. There was very little hatred between the two, and here there was nothing but hatred. That's all this war was about. It wasn't about powers, abilities or being a mutant; it was purely hatred of something different.

For now they were staying in the Professor's mansion, as he had left it to his students in his will. Wanda had figured out that that Brotherhood house had been destroyed when she had shifted worlds, but miraculously no one got seriously hurt. Good, because that house had been a condemned piece of hell from day one. She looked out from her balcony over the city below her, which was quiet for the moment. Sirens had been installed to give as much early warning as possible should Magneto choose to attack.

"Wanda?" asked a voice from her doorway. She turned to see it was Rogue. It was going to take a lot of getting used to, seeing the X-Men and thinking of them as allies. Zuko was down showing some of the hand-to-hand fighters his combat moves, so for the moment she was alone.

"Yeah?" she asked hesitantly.

"Can ah come in?" Rogue asked in her Southern drawl. Wanda shrugged her acceptance, so Rouge entered.

"What's wrong?" Wanda asked.

"Nothin', ah just…" Rogue looked up at her with wide eyes, full of both fear and hope. "Can ah see it?" Wanda raised an eyebrow at her.

"See what?" she asked.

"The world you came from…where they all get along, like ya said." Wanda fixed her with both eyes, staring her down. She had been on the receiving end of Rouge's ability and knew it was not fun. "I wouldn't need more 'n just a tap, I just wanna glimpse," Rouge said, but Wanda could tell her courage was failing her. "Ahh forget it," she said and stood up.

"Wait," Wanda said, coming over to sit on the bed next to her. Rogue hesitated then sat back down. "It won't hurt, like last time, will it?" Rogue blushed and shook her head.

"Na, sorry 'bout that, by the way." Wanda shrugged a shoulder.

"Guess it's all in the past now." Wanda flipped her hands over so they were facing palms up and gestured for Rogue to go ahead.

"Ya don't mind?" Rogue asked shyly. Again Wanda shrugged.

"As long as it won't hurt."

"I've learned how to control it a bit better, since I've seen ya last. Not a whole lot, but a bit," Rogue told her as she took off her gloves. "I can choose now, to take powers or memories 'n not both. 'N I can choose how much of somethin' to take, so it won't hurt or anythin'."

"Good enough for me," Wanda said. "What do you need from me?"

"Just try 'n focus on what it was like, 'n ah think ah can do the rest." Wanda closed her eyes and remembered. She remembered Ember Island, and the summers she would spend there with Zuko and the rest of the gang. She remembered training lessons with Suki, Mai and Ty Lee as they taught her hand-to-hand combat. She remember Toph and how much strength that little rock-thrower gave her. She and Toph had grown extremely close over the years and she didn't realize how much she missed the earth bender until the twinge inside at the thought of her. She focused on how well Sokka, Suki, Ty-Lee and Mai worked with Katara, Aang, Zuko and Toph; benders and non-benders alike working as one team, one force, one family…. She felt another twinge, but it wasn't pain, more like a tug. There was a shadow in her memories now, following her every step.

She remembered Zuko's mother, a non-bender, and how kind she had been, She remembered Uncle, a fire bender, and how welcoming he had been to her since the first day and what a God-send he had been. She could feel Rogue smile at her Iroh memories, so she continued deeper. There was Aang, keeping balance between everyone and his frequent trips to the Spirit world. He and Katara had their first boy already, and he was beautiful. There were the cold nights warmed by Zuko or Iroh, and the hottest of days cooled by Katara or Aang. Then without really meaning to, she slipped into the battle with Anukrei. There was the kidnap of Zuko, the panic she felt in her chest, the absolutely horrible feeling of nothingness the guard that made her remember Pietro those rainy nights _Be silent, Wanda_-

Wanda gasped and pulled away, shooting into a standing position and moving to stare out of the window once more.

"Wanda, ah am so sorry, ah didn't mean-" Wanda cut her off with a shake of her head. She hugged herself tightly, digging her nails into the flesh of her arms and shutting her eyes tightly.

"No, it's ok… I wasn't prepared for the train to derail either. It just…happens sometimes." Her mind was a slippery thing, having suppressed memories, then her memories stolen by Magneto, only to have them break out again and taint her mind even farther. She never knew what path her mind would wander, or what would trigger it. Still, that was one memory she would have rather kept to herself. Rogue had slipped her gloves back on, and put one hand on Wanda's shoulder.

"Wanda…" Wanda shrugged it off, still clenching her teeth from the vivid memory of her twin brother on those nights he would enter her room uninvited.

"Just, keep that to yourself will you?" Wanda asked tersely.

"Of course," Rouge agreed. "But Wanda… have ya talked to anyone 'bout this?" Wanda shook her head and turned to face Rouge.

"What's there to talk about? Nothing. Ok? Just, leave it." Rouge gave Wanda one last look, then nodded.

"Alright, but ya should know, I'm here for ya, if ya ever do wanna talk to someone." Wanda nodded, but pushed that thought far from her mind.

"What are the others doing?" she asked, though she already knew the answer.

"In the Danger Room, training."

"I think I'll go join them," Wanda told her and left before any more could be said.

* * *

Once in the Danger Room, Wanda could throw herself completely into battle and forget any unwanted thoughts. At first she was there was just a shadow to forget, but then as the others saw that her power had grown exponentially they wanted to test themselves. At first it was just one on one, but as Wanda went undefeated each round it grew until teams were pitted against her. Once Jean got close, but then Wanda put a shield over her mind and used Jean's own powers against her to fly her into a corner and hold her there in a hex cage. Kitty got stuck in a wall with another hex, and Lance's own landslide just about buried him alive until Nightcrawler teleported him out, but Wanda again used that to her advantage to teleport them out of the Danger Room and out to the front lawn.

Finally Zuko joined the fight which was difficult for her because he knew all of her moves. Every attempt she made to hex him he countered with a blast of fire that engulfed her magic and ate it away entirely. Wolfsbane came at her in wolf form, which Wanda hexed into a puppy for the time being and placed in the opening in the ceiling to keep out of harm's way. Again Zuko came at her, keeping in close combat since he knew she wouldn't have as much reaction time or maneuverability to work with. He stayed low as well, keeping out of her direct line of fire as she tried to fend off Amara's wave of lava and Boom Boom's blasts at the same time. Finally he grabbed her by the wrist and threw her over his hip, swiftly coming to pin her wrists to the floor.

"Getting rusty my Dragoness," he teased her breathlessly. Wanda shrugged and let the chaos leave her hands, showing an obvious sign of defeat.

"And what are you going to do about it?" she shot back at him with a wicked smile.

"Teach you a lesson," he growled into her ear. About then they both realized that eyes were on them, so Zuko slid off of her and gave her a hand up. Neither of them noticed Lance sidle to the side and catch Gambit's eye.

"She's good, better than I thought, but she comes with a crippling weakness that you know Magneto will find and use," Lance said softly.

"Yea, but how do we fix it? He came wit her, and he convinced her to stay 'n fight wit us," Gambit mused as they watched Zuko and Wanda.

"We need to get them apart," Lance proposed. "Wanda has been and will always be at her best when fueled by rage. As long as he's around to calm her temper, she's like a water gun when she could be a bazooka. If we're going to fight Magneto and his army of the best mutants he could get his hands on, we need her at her all time best. That means zero weaknesses."

"I'll get to work on dat," Gambit said, and Lance nodded in agreement. Toad watched them walk away from his place above them on the wall. His gaze shifted over to Wanda, who was smiling, actually smiling, up at Zuko. She looked so different now. It wasn't just the long hair or what he now knew were Fire Nation clothes; they were right. She had lost her edge, her anger. Sure, she still had a bit of a temper, but it was hardly a candle compared to the bonfire it was before. She looked at that guy like he was her sun and stars. Something in Toad broke a little every time he saw he so happy when she had been so mean and distant to his best efforts. He wasn't sure he sided with Gambit and Lance, but he wasn't about to warn Zuko either. With a shake of his head he leapt off the wall and turned his back to Wanda and Zuko on his way out the door.


	3. Chapter 3

"I'm not some kind of tactician, ok? I'm…I don't even know what I am!" Wanda admitted in exasperation to Ice Man and Jean. They we seated around the table in the kitchen, though no food was before them. Instead was a map with red pawns marking the friendly mutant locations and numbers and blue marking Magneto's forces and numbers.

"We don't need you to be a tactician," Jean told her soothingly. "We just need you to rally the troops, so to speak. Show them that we have a fighting chance."

"And how am I supposed to do that?" Wanda asked harshly. "Run out in the streets throwing hexes everywhere?"

"Na, just do what you do best," Bobby told her.

"And what's that?" Wanda asked in a dry voice.

"Be a power house." Jean glared at him. "What? It's true. You're the only one with enough power to be a big enough tank to even draw Magneto's attention."

"While Bobby isn't very tactful with words, more or less he's right. We still have all of the plans laid out before… the professor…" She moved on quickly because it was still too painful for her to talk about the professor's death. "All we're asking is with the next attack, no matter how small, show up and fight for us. When people see that the Scarlet Witch is back and fighting on this side of the war people will come flocking to us. Then Storm, me and Gambit can give them the attack plan."

"So you want me to be your puppet," remarked Wanda sourly.

"No," Jean said strongly. "We want you to be our symbol of hope. We want you to show the world that we will not bow to Magneto and his 'perfect' world. We want you to give the people something to rally behind and believe in, so that we stand a fighting chance at winning this thing." Wanda signed and put her face in her hands.

"Ok, ok, I get it. I'll f-" before she could even get the sentence out the sirens began ringing from Bayville. Bobby and Jean exchanged looks of fear and determination. "Guess it's show time," Wanda said.

Thanks to frequent drills and training, their entire force, save for the protective squad left at the mansion, was in the city on site within minutes. Most had their eyes in the ally or the streets, but even after so long Wanda knew better. Her eyes were in the sky, which is why she saw them first. Those of Magneto's force that couldn't fly were being brought over on floating metal discs controlled by the master of metal himself. All told, he brought about 100 mutants.

"This is his biggest attack yet," remarked Kitty who was beside Wanda.

"Good," Wanda said darkly. "Let him come." Zuko fixed her with worried eyes, but didn't say anything. He had never seen this side of Wanda, only glimpses of it. Since she had come to his world she had spent her entire life there trying to forget the pain and hatred that this world held for her. Now only a few days back she felt different to him; darker. He didn't have much time to think about it before Wanda used a trick she picked up from Aang and lifted herself in the air to meet Magneto head on with those who could levitate or fly behind her.

Since her magic was now pure scarlet instead of the sapphire blue it had been before, it took a moment for Magneto to realize who he was facing off against. As soon as he did, he stopped in his tracks.

"Wanda?" he asked disbelievingly. Wanda snarled a grin at him.

"What's the matter father, don't recognize your own blood anymore?" she taunted.

"I can't be. I saw the wreckage. The entire house had been consumed by the explosion."

"Yet here I am. I'm giving you this one chance, which is more than you deserve. Stop this stupid war now. Before anyone gets hurt." Zuko could tell her heart wasn't in it though. Her tone was more antagonizing than pleading. She wanted an excuse to fight him, any excuse at all.

"No, Wanda, I'm tryi-"

"Trying to make the world a better place?" Wand mocked. "Save it Magneto. I've heard it all before, but you're only full of shit. You only want people you have control over. Those you can't control you fear, so you have to find a way to get rid of them. Well news flash; some of them have a nasty habit of coming back to bite you in the ass."

"Wanda, listen to me," he started but again was cut off.

"No! I'm DONE listening to you! Either stand down now and disband your army, or face me. It's your choice." Magneto shook his head at her words.

"I wish it didn't have to be this way," he told her sadly.

"Bullshit," she spat acidly. Then she turned to look his mutants in the eyes. "Now you can make a choice. Fight with him, fight against him, or leave all together. This is your only warning." He turned to face his mutants and raised his hands.

"We are the future that has been promised! The age of mere man is over! Our time has come! Let the true Evolution begin!" Wanda let Magneto have the first attack in order to show that it was his choice not to stand down. After she deflected an arrow wreathed in pink flame, all hell broke loose. A giant wall of pure hex fire was pulled up between the two sides and thrown at Magneto's army. All of those who didn't shield against it or weren't shielded by others in time dropped to the streets below without a second chance. The Evolutionists were so hyped up on their own battle cry that the fourth of their army dropping didn't even faze them. They rained down on those in the way of the human city, clashing with a horrific cacophony of cries of pain and hate combined.

Zuko met the opposing army with the wall of mutants, fighting alongside them to keep the humans safe. He was able to keep his ground and even take a few steps forward, pushing the other mutants back. Eventually he fought hard enough that he gained significant ground and others could fall in behind him and continue to wedge the other mutants out and around them in order to thin the ranks. Right when Zuko was beginning to feel triumphant, his own fire turned against him. Looking beyond those in front of him, he saw the Australian man dressed in red laughing as he manipulated all of Zuko's fire out and away, then back at him in an attack of Pyro's own. After that, all of Zuko's efforts were devoted to defending his own ground and those around him by drawing fire and dissipating it.

The sky turned black as Storm brought rain and hail down on the opposing side. Wanda stayed in the sky hovering over all of it for as long as possible, but eventually Colossus grabbed her by the ankle and threw her into the ground hard enough to make a crater. She shielded herself against the contact, but still took a few seconds to recover. When she did she turned to face her attacker but didn't do anything against him.

"Piotr, I know you're not doing this by choice," Wanda called to him over the tempest raging around them. "We can protect you and your family from Magneto. Please." Wanda met his eyes for a few seconds. He stared her down, then slowly shook his head.

"Little Witch, you can't protect what you can't find," he told her sadly. Although instead of fighting her, he turned around and ran head first into the battle against the others. Wanda let him go, turning instead to the onslaught that now met her. She looked up and shot hexes from the ground, pulling the hovering of flying mutants from the sky one by one and caging them together in a growing bowl made of hex fire. That's when an all-too familiar breeze blew past her, then around her.

"Hey-sis, thought-you-were-gonzo," he called into her ears as he passed her. Zuko had known Wanda long enough that she had told him of her past with her twin brother, and what his power was. As soon as he saw the speeding mutant circling Wanda he started to make his way towards her.

Pure loathing reared up inside Wanda's chest and flooded her veins with hatefire. "_Pietro," _she hissed out. As soon as she said his name her whole body was engulfed in hexes flickering out of control. She threw her arm out in front of her, trying to hit Pietro with a jagged bolt of red lightning.

"You-gotta-be-faster-than-that," Pietro teased as he wizzed by her once more, knocking her off her feet. After that, Wanda couldn't control her hate. Her magic lashed out in raw form, creating a swirling form of both blue and red hexes that surrounded her in a perfect sphere. The wind seemed to be blowing from every single direction at once as Wanda now hovered above the ground, her eyes misting a violent scarlet light.

"Pietro, you sick bastard, I'll kill you for what you've done."

"Only-if-you-can-catch-me," he said. Now he was trying to circle in a direction that would counteract her chaos winds, but they only got stronger. She held her hands in front of her, wrists together and fingers stretched all the way out. From her hands a bolt of blue light shot from her and grabbed Pietro out of mid-run, bringing him to kneel in front of her. When he looked up at her, his face turned into a mask of pure terror.

"W-W-W-Wanda…" he stuttered. She sneered down at him, then held one hand over his forehead.

"You're _mine_ now Pietro. Better be silent, you wouldn't want Father to hear your cries of pain. What would he think?" she asked in wicked irony, warping the same words he had forced into her ears all those nights to fit her circumstance.

"W-W-Wanda, look, I'm sorry, ok?"

"Not yet. But you will be." She blasted a bright scarlet hex at him from the center of her palm, making him fall to the street and writhe in agony. Zuko was now barely close enough to call her name but she didn't hear him.

"WANDA STOP! PLEASE! I'M SORRY!" Pietro yelled from below her.

"Give me one good reason to let you live," she growled to him. "Just one. Because I can't even think of that many, you _Miserable, Excuse, for a Brother._" With the last three emphasized words she alternated hands to throw more and more hexes on him that put him in even more agony. Zuko fought his way through her hex winds and finally made it close enough to grab her wrist.

"Wanda," he called to her sternly. She turned to face him with a palm full of blood red magic then halted when she realized it was him. Still she wouldn't release the hold she had on Pietro.

"What?" she demanded. "You want me to let him live? You know he doesn't deserve it!" Zuko met her eyes with his cool ones.

"No, he doesn't. It doesn't mean that you have to kill him, or even torture him. What he did was wrong, but what you're doing is just as bad. Wanda, can't you see what you're becoming?

"Even?" she spat back at him, and he could almost feel the hatred she held for Pietro humming through her veins.

"Not this way. Wanda, let him go."

"Like you did to Azula?" As soon as she said it, Wanda regretted it. The look on Zuko's face was regret that went soul deep. "Zuko, I-" He dropped her wrist and took a step back.

"Fine Wanda. You really want to go down that path? Do it. Kill him, and see what it brings you." With that he turned around and left, jumping back into the fray to fight the real fight against evil. Wanda watched him go, then let out a scream of rage. She slashed her hand across the air in front of her, sending Pietro flying into the hex cage that she was keeping all of the others in. She then took her frustration back to the battlefield, effectively ending any last resistance that Magneto's army was putting up. Unsurprisingly, Magneto had left to get his own skin out while the battle raged on and while Wanda had been busy with Pietro, so he was no where to be seen as the fight pittered out. Wanda then looked for Zuko but couldn't find him anywhere either. She didn't stick around for everything to come to a halt, the rest of the Resistance had it well under control. Instead she took to the air and flew as far and as fast away as she could.

Lance met Gambit's eyes and the Cajun nodded. It would be taken care of soon. They couldn't afford another scene like that, especially not now that Magneto knew what they were bringing to the table. They needed a ruthless, merciless hate-filled Wanda and that meant Zuko had to be cut out of her picture.


End file.
